The discipline of our Father

The main help that this passage (Hebrews 12:1-11) has given to me over the past ten years is in vv.5-11.  Here God tells us the purpose for which he sends us trouble of all kinds.  In vv. 5-6 he says to these Christians who are on the edge of quitting because of the suffering: "Have you forgotten the exortation that addresses you as sons?"  The fact that the pain you are suffering is causing you to want to quit the race, stop the struggle merely shows you have forgotten that God is your Father and you are his son and he has told you what he is doing.  Then he quotes a passage out of Proverbs 3:11-12.  "My son do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord nor be weary when reproved by him.  For the Lord disciplines everyone whom he loves and he chastises ever son whom he recieves."  (The word translated "chastises" is the same word that is translated "flog" several places in the gospels when Jesus describes what is going to happen to him when he is arrested in Jerusalem.  In John 19:1 it says: "Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him.")  The mark of our Father's love is his wise and perfect discipline.  Every person he loves and every person he receives as a son he causes to suffer pain of some variety. 

The Greek word for "discipline" is often translated "instruction" or "training" (Acts 7:22, 22:3, Titus 2:12).  This is not punishment but pain sent for the purpose of instruction and training.  The author goes on to make the point that every good, loving human father disciplines his children to train them.  He asks, "We submitted to our earthly parents, should we not much more submit to the Father of spirits and so live?"  In v. 10 he gets to the main point.  Earthly parents discpline us as it seems best to them but God disciplines us for our good.  Now, what is the good purpose for which God sends the suffering which is his discpline:  God's good purpose is that "we might share his holiness."  What does that mean?

The fact that God is holy is the most often repeated fact about God in the Bible.  The word means "to be cut from a different cloth," to be set apart as absolutely unique in every way from everyone and everything else.  To say that God is holy is to say that is utterly different from us in every conceivable way.  He is a being unto himself with no rival and no equal.  In some ways it is the word that describes the "Godness" of God.  To share in the holiness of God is to share in God's delight in being God.  It is to be taken up with the greatness and glory and wonder of God himself. 

Like the child who can think of nothing better than to know and be like his favorite sports star or super hero or movie character, so those who share in God's holiness can think of nothing better than to be known and loved by this glorious God and to know and love and be like him in every way possible.  The fact of the matter is that without the loss of earthly pleasure and comfort, without the presence of pain in our lives we will not prefer God to creation.  We are hard wired to seek our pleasure in the created world (Romans 1:18-25).  Even when we become Christians we continue to be attracted to the pleasures of sin and of this world.  We are daily battling to believe that to have Christ, to be known and loved by God, to have sins forgiven and a home in the new creation is better than food and sex and hobbies and families and accomplishment and the approval of others and alchohol and drugs and work and shopping and vacations and everything.  We want the gifts, not the Giver.  So, our loving Father sends us trouble, the loss of these things so that we can discover that being loved by him and being like him is better than everything.

The only wise God is the one who is in charge of the discpline.  He knows what kind of discipline each of his children need and when they need it.  We don't choose the suffering. God chooses it for us because he is our Father.

Verse 11 is so important:  It says, "At the moment, all discipline is painful, not pleasant yet later on it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness for those who have been trained by it."  None of my children were ever happy when I discplined them.  Discipline is pain.  It is the loss of things we love and care about.  It is not pleasant and we are not required to say that it is pleasant.  We are to recognize and grieve the pain.  It is right for children to cry when they are disciplined.  Seeing my son suffer as he has the past 10 years and remembering who he was and thinking about who he might have become have been tremendous sources of pain in our lives about which we have shed many tears.  However, our good and loving Father has sent this trouble for our good that we might share his holiness.  Thus, it is good for us.  It is no fun to have cancer and I'm sure I will learn more of the unpleasantness in the coming months.  Yet my loving Father has sent this to me and my family for our good, that we might share his holiness.  I would much rather know and experience the delight of God than not have cancer.

Finally, notice also that in v. 11, as in v. 9 the effect of the displine upon us is determined by whether or not we are gong to submit to our Father or be trained by it.  We must use the pain to pursue the Lord.  We must use the pain to evaluate ourselves.  We must be trained by it through our submission to it as discipline.  Ultimately the question comes down to this: what do you want--a pain free life on planet earth for 70 years or a sharing in the holiness of God forever?  If you want the former than all loss and pain will be a threat and a source of bitterness in your life.  If you want the latter, then pain and loss will be for you the path to greater joy in God.